Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon falls 66% in August

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell by 66 percent in August versus the same month last year, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's government has said, calling it a sign its environmental policies are working.

"In August, we had a reduction of 66.11 percent in deforestation" in Brazil's share of the world's biggest rainforest, Environment Minister Marina Silva told a ceremony marking Amazon Day on Tuesday.

That followed a similar year-on-year drop of 66 percent in July — both crucial months in the Amazon, where deforestation typically surges this time of year with the onset of drier weather.

According to satellite monitoring by Brazil's space research institute, INPE, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon wiped out 1,661 square kilometres in August 2022, the last year of far-right ex-president Jair Bolsonaro's term.

Bolsonaro [2019-2022], an ally of the powerful agribusiness industry blamed for driving the destruction, presided over a sharp increase in deforestation in the Amazon.

"These results show the determination of the Lula administration to break the cycle of abandonment and regression seen under the previous government," Silva said.

"If we don't protect the forest and its people, we'll condemn the world to a brutal increase of CO2 emissions and, as a result, accelerating climate change."

Earlier, Lula celebrated the decline, saying on social media that it is a "result of the great work of the Environment Ministry and the federal government."

Risks of deforestation

Deforestation in the Amazon causes the loss of many species and their habitats, negatively impacts Indigenous people and their health, causes fire, an increase in CO2 emission, soil erosion, flooding, desertification, pollution of rivers and lands, and negatively alters the water cycle around the world.

Brazil last month hosted a major rainforest summit, where eight Amazon nations agreed to a list of unified environmental policies and measures to bolster regional cooperation but failed to agree on a common goal for ending deforestation.

Lula, who previously led Brazil from 2003 to 2010, returned to office in January, vowing to protect the threatened Amazon, whose carbon-absorbing trees are a vital buffer against global heating.